Here we are, the Oregon week has arrived for football and the basketball team is playing its last game at home before heading to the Bahamas next week. Then there is recruiting, oh, recruiting. Sorry for the delay in this week’s War Room, but lets get right into it as the weekend draws near.
Football
Arizona has one of the games that it circled before the start of the season right upon it now with the trip to Eugene set for Saturday. There has been some animosity mostly from Arizona’s side because of what Willie Taggart and his staff have done raiding the Wildcats’ 2017 class and continuing to try and flip Arizona recruits and offer UA targets as well. It’s definitely personal this week.
* Before we get to that, however, we will take a look back at last week’s win over Oregon State that had its bright moments and less bright moments. Because it is already nearing the end of the week we will break this section up into three parts rather than taking a look at each part of the team position by position. Instead we will look at the offense, defense and special teams as a whole in this week’s breakdown.
- Offense: Khalil Tate was able to get back to putting work in on the ground rushing for over 200 yards for the third time in just six starts. In the win over Oregon State he certainly looked like the guy who won four straight Pac-12 Player of the Week awards in October. The key for Tate in any game is going to be getting to the perimeter for runs and because of the success of Nick Wilson and JJ Taylor on the ground (plus it being Oregon State), he had the chance to do that and it led to some big gains including the 71-yard touchdown run. It all added up to the Wildcats having their best performance ever on the ground and 534 rushing yards.
A big part of the record-setting night was the offensive line which was able to get a good amount of push against OSU. It wasn’t the cleanest night for the group as there were some technique issues at times, but the amount of push the group was able to get up front helped lead the way for the backs to get going and set the new rushing record.
The receivers were only targets seven times in the game so it was mostly blocking duty again for that group, but the positive for UA is the receivers have become one of the best blocking units in the country. It’s something they take pride in.
- Defense: It was an interesting day for Marcel Yates and his defense. At times it looked like the coaches were letting it all hang out and showing different looks and bringing pressure then in the second half the defense was less active and that is when Oregon State was able to hang some points on the board after being shutout in the first 30 minutes. The soft spot in Arizona’s defense continues to be stopping the run. Oregon State didn’t go crazy racking up 151 yards on the ground but it did nearly have as many first downs as the Wildcats and controlled the clock more. The numbers get skewed a bit because of Arizona’s offense but the group up front and the linebackers certainly have moments where they could be better especially against the run.
The group up front did what it needed to do to secure the win over Oregon State, but it will have to put together a more complete performance this weekend against Oregon. Colin Schooler and Dereck Boles combined for 13 tackles and four tackles for loss. Schooler had two sacks in the game.
On the back end of the defense it was a similar story. There were certainly some bright moments with Lorenzo Burns earning his fourth interception of the season and Jarrius Wallace leading the group in tackles but the Beavers threw four touchdown passes in the second half after being held to under 100 yards passing in the first. Things weren’t as crisp in the second half and there was a lot more cushion being given up. It’s natural to have a more relaxed feel with the game in hand but Arizona will still need to work on keeping its foot on the gas.
- Special teams: Brian Knorr’s group didn’t have any mistakes and did its job. That’s all you can ask for of a group that has had its struggles at times this season. Josh Pollack needed to make just one punt and he was able to roll it for 44 yards with an impressive kick. Shun Brown returned just one punt and it went for six yards while Lucas Havrisik had six of his eight kickoffs go for touchbacks. He did have one kick go out of bounds, but other than that it was a quiet night for the special teams group and that can sometimes be a good thing.
* The Oregon game will be a big one for the Wildcats for the reasons we mentioned above, but there is also still plenty to play for when it comes to the postseason for UA. A win in Eugene would mean heading into Tempe next week with a chance to completely flip the record from a season ago. The weather will be a little cooler and there is a chance for rain, but here are a few things to watch out for as the Wildcats take on the Ducks looking for another win at Autzen Stadium.
- Arizona’s emotions will be at the top of the list heading into this week’s game. It’s clear there are a lot of unhappy players and coaches heading into this game and the last time the Wildcats truly played with some anger as an entire group it led to the win over UCLA. This feels like the type of team you don’t want to make angry. This entire season has been a response to that emotion after being picked to finish last in the conference. Arizona’s team is one that is just scrappy enough to do some damage with a little extra motivation and it has that this week. The down side is that having too much anger or emotion can be a bad things at time. We saw it against USC with Tate forcing some throws and making a few mistakes in the loss to the Trojans. The good news for UA this week is that the entire team will pretty much be on the same page in terms of motivation and that could mean a long evening for the Ducks.
- How different Oregon looks with Justin Herbert taking the snaps will be something else to watch in Saturday’s game. The sophomore went 4-1 as a starter earlier in the year before fracturing his collarbone. Since then the Ducks were 1-4 with former Arizona commit Braxton Burmeister handling most of the quarterbacking duties. Herbert being back, although not yet confirmed by the team, will mean a chance for Oregon to go deep a bit more than it has been able to in his absence. That will challenge the Wildcats’ secondary a bit more and put more pressure on the linebackers in coverage as well.
He is definitely an X-factor heading into this game considering there is no real way of knowing whether or not there will be considerable rust or if he will be able to hit the ground running and pick up where he left off.
- Oregon’s answer for Tate is something else to consider in this game as well. Only USC has been able to truly limit the Arizona quarterback from what he wants to do, and even then the Trojans could only really contain him for a half. Oregon has some young talent on its defense, but does it have the answer for slowing down Tate? That will be something to keep an eye on as the UA signal caller holds the keys to the offense and if he gets going early the Ducks might not have the team to be able to stay in the game at this point in the year.
There is also the element of Tate’s Heisman candidacy in play. It is starting to become more of a reality that he will earn an invite and the better he plays these next two weeks the better his chances of being in the discussion for the honor.
Football recruiting
As things continue to move forward there is plenty going on with recruiting right now. The Wildcats picked up a commitment from Texas defensive back Christian Young as he became the highest-rated prospect in the class. UA also now has extra spot in the class as receiver commit Jaden Mitchell let GOAZCATS.com know that he will be grayshirting for the upcoming year meaning he won’t count against the 2018 class.
We will have a couple interesting topics to take a look at in this portion of the War Room so lets get to it.
* This is something we have been wanting to do for quite some time, and now that UA has some direction with its class it is as good a time as any. To give you a better feel for our thoughts on the Wildcats’ current 2018 recruiting class we thought we’d take some time to rank the group from top to bottom giving you a little bit of our take on each prospect and why we think they belong where they are.
1. Jamarye Joiner (QB/ATH): Right now in our opinion the local standout from Cienega High School is the gem of the class and with the success Tate is having this season Joiner will step into the perfect situation in college. He will get a chance to sit for a year behind Tate and hone his skill set before being given the chance to take over and continue the roll at the position. He has a similar frame and skill set to Tate and right now he is a better passer than Brandon Dawkins. Joiner doesn’t have the same level of elusiveness and outright explosion to his game but he will be a solid successor to Tate one day. At this point he is likely to receive a bump in the rankings the next time around and could become a four-star prospect when all is said and done.
2. Christian Young (DB): We have gravitated toward the new UA commit throughout the class and for good reason. He is a physical player with a ton of versatility and size. From a natural talent standpoint he is the strongest piece of the defensive back group Arizona has on board and there is a reason his offer list looked like it did. Young is the type of defensive back Arizona wants on its team and it would not be a shock to see him get fast-tracked into early action when he arrives in Tucson for good.
Football
Arizona has one of the games that it circled before the start of the season right upon it now with the trip to Eugene set for Saturday. There has been some animosity mostly from Arizona’s side because of what Willie Taggart and his staff have done raiding the Wildcats’ 2017 class and continuing to try and flip Arizona recruits and offer UA targets as well. It’s definitely personal this week.
* Before we get to that, however, we will take a look back at last week’s win over Oregon State that had its bright moments and less bright moments. Because it is already nearing the end of the week we will break this section up into three parts rather than taking a look at each part of the team position by position. Instead we will look at the offense, defense and special teams as a whole in this week’s breakdown.
- Offense: Khalil Tate was able to get back to putting work in on the ground rushing for over 200 yards for the third time in just six starts. In the win over Oregon State he certainly looked like the guy who won four straight Pac-12 Player of the Week awards in October. The key for Tate in any game is going to be getting to the perimeter for runs and because of the success of Nick Wilson and JJ Taylor on the ground (plus it being Oregon State), he had the chance to do that and it led to some big gains including the 71-yard touchdown run. It all added up to the Wildcats having their best performance ever on the ground and 534 rushing yards.
A big part of the record-setting night was the offensive line which was able to get a good amount of push against OSU. It wasn’t the cleanest night for the group as there were some technique issues at times, but the amount of push the group was able to get up front helped lead the way for the backs to get going and set the new rushing record.
The receivers were only targets seven times in the game so it was mostly blocking duty again for that group, but the positive for UA is the receivers have become one of the best blocking units in the country. It’s something they take pride in.
- Defense: It was an interesting day for Marcel Yates and his defense. At times it looked like the coaches were letting it all hang out and showing different looks and bringing pressure then in the second half the defense was less active and that is when Oregon State was able to hang some points on the board after being shutout in the first 30 minutes. The soft spot in Arizona’s defense continues to be stopping the run. Oregon State didn’t go crazy racking up 151 yards on the ground but it did nearly have as many first downs as the Wildcats and controlled the clock more. The numbers get skewed a bit because of Arizona’s offense but the group up front and the linebackers certainly have moments where they could be better especially against the run.
The group up front did what it needed to do to secure the win over Oregon State, but it will have to put together a more complete performance this weekend against Oregon. Colin Schooler and Dereck Boles combined for 13 tackles and four tackles for loss. Schooler had two sacks in the game.
On the back end of the defense it was a similar story. There were certainly some bright moments with Lorenzo Burns earning his fourth interception of the season and Jarrius Wallace leading the group in tackles but the Beavers threw four touchdown passes in the second half after being held to under 100 yards passing in the first. Things weren’t as crisp in the second half and there was a lot more cushion being given up. It’s natural to have a more relaxed feel with the game in hand but Arizona will still need to work on keeping its foot on the gas.
- Special teams: Brian Knorr’s group didn’t have any mistakes and did its job. That’s all you can ask for of a group that has had its struggles at times this season. Josh Pollack needed to make just one punt and he was able to roll it for 44 yards with an impressive kick. Shun Brown returned just one punt and it went for six yards while Lucas Havrisik had six of his eight kickoffs go for touchbacks. He did have one kick go out of bounds, but other than that it was a quiet night for the special teams group and that can sometimes be a good thing.
* The Oregon game will be a big one for the Wildcats for the reasons we mentioned above, but there is also still plenty to play for when it comes to the postseason for UA. A win in Eugene would mean heading into Tempe next week with a chance to completely flip the record from a season ago. The weather will be a little cooler and there is a chance for rain, but here are a few things to watch out for as the Wildcats take on the Ducks looking for another win at Autzen Stadium.
- Arizona’s emotions will be at the top of the list heading into this week’s game. It’s clear there are a lot of unhappy players and coaches heading into this game and the last time the Wildcats truly played with some anger as an entire group it led to the win over UCLA. This feels like the type of team you don’t want to make angry. This entire season has been a response to that emotion after being picked to finish last in the conference. Arizona’s team is one that is just scrappy enough to do some damage with a little extra motivation and it has that this week. The down side is that having too much anger or emotion can be a bad things at time. We saw it against USC with Tate forcing some throws and making a few mistakes in the loss to the Trojans. The good news for UA this week is that the entire team will pretty much be on the same page in terms of motivation and that could mean a long evening for the Ducks.
- How different Oregon looks with Justin Herbert taking the snaps will be something else to watch in Saturday’s game. The sophomore went 4-1 as a starter earlier in the year before fracturing his collarbone. Since then the Ducks were 1-4 with former Arizona commit Braxton Burmeister handling most of the quarterbacking duties. Herbert being back, although not yet confirmed by the team, will mean a chance for Oregon to go deep a bit more than it has been able to in his absence. That will challenge the Wildcats’ secondary a bit more and put more pressure on the linebackers in coverage as well.
He is definitely an X-factor heading into this game considering there is no real way of knowing whether or not there will be considerable rust or if he will be able to hit the ground running and pick up where he left off.
- Oregon’s answer for Tate is something else to consider in this game as well. Only USC has been able to truly limit the Arizona quarterback from what he wants to do, and even then the Trojans could only really contain him for a half. Oregon has some young talent on its defense, but does it have the answer for slowing down Tate? That will be something to keep an eye on as the UA signal caller holds the keys to the offense and if he gets going early the Ducks might not have the team to be able to stay in the game at this point in the year.
There is also the element of Tate’s Heisman candidacy in play. It is starting to become more of a reality that he will earn an invite and the better he plays these next two weeks the better his chances of being in the discussion for the honor.
Football recruiting
As things continue to move forward there is plenty going on with recruiting right now. The Wildcats picked up a commitment from Texas defensive back Christian Young as he became the highest-rated prospect in the class. UA also now has extra spot in the class as receiver commit Jaden Mitchell let GOAZCATS.com know that he will be grayshirting for the upcoming year meaning he won’t count against the 2018 class.
We will have a couple interesting topics to take a look at in this portion of the War Room so lets get to it.
* This is something we have been wanting to do for quite some time, and now that UA has some direction with its class it is as good a time as any. To give you a better feel for our thoughts on the Wildcats’ current 2018 recruiting class we thought we’d take some time to rank the group from top to bottom giving you a little bit of our take on each prospect and why we think they belong where they are.
1. Jamarye Joiner (QB/ATH): Right now in our opinion the local standout from Cienega High School is the gem of the class and with the success Tate is having this season Joiner will step into the perfect situation in college. He will get a chance to sit for a year behind Tate and hone his skill set before being given the chance to take over and continue the roll at the position. He has a similar frame and skill set to Tate and right now he is a better passer than Brandon Dawkins. Joiner doesn’t have the same level of elusiveness and outright explosion to his game but he will be a solid successor to Tate one day. At this point he is likely to receive a bump in the rankings the next time around and could become a four-star prospect when all is said and done.
2. Christian Young (DB): We have gravitated toward the new UA commit throughout the class and for good reason. He is a physical player with a ton of versatility and size. From a natural talent standpoint he is the strongest piece of the defensive back group Arizona has on board and there is a reason his offer list looked like it did. Young is the type of defensive back Arizona wants on its team and it would not be a shock to see him get fast-tracked into early action when he arrives in Tucson for good.
